The main aim of the Computer Services Department is to deliver a prompt and effective IT support service via a single point of contact for both staff and students. In addition to providing first level support the department is tasked with maintaining the schools computer network and all associated computer equipment.

The Computer Services Department was established during the first quarter of 1997. During the first 6 months significant changes to the network infrastructure were made. These changes were made in order to improve reliability, accommodate growth without compromising performance, and also to allow for effective network management.

Originally the school had 13 fileservers with a mixture of operating systems including Netware 3.11, 4.1 and Windows NT.  These servers proved unreliable and difficult to support due to the age and specification of the equipment. As a result the number of fileservers was reduced and a ‘server farm’ was established within the Computer Services Department.

The primary network operating system is Novell Suse Linux Enterprise Server, running Open Enterprise Server 2 and Windows Vista Business Service Pack 2 is the current client operating system. This is complimented by a number of Windows 2003 and 2008 Enterprise Servers running in a physical and virtual environment.

Virtualisation technology is provided by the VMWare VSphere 4 operating system in a 3 node cluster, managed by VMWare VSphere Virtual Centre. Within the virtual environment features such as High Availability (HA), Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) and VMotion are taken advantage of, providing automatic redundancy failover and the ability to move live virtual servers between cluster nodes on the fly .

The schools network infrastructure was upgraded in the 3rd quarter of 2007 from an aging 3com system, to the latest Cisco switching technology. A Cisco Catalyst 6500 is installed at the core and Catalyst 3750 switches at the edge locations. Etherchannelling is configured on the fibre connections to the edge switches, doubling the fibre connection speed from 1Gbps to 2Gbps.

The School has a significant Internet presence with 2 permanent 10Mbps connections at Telford, hosting multiple dedicated web servers running both Apache Web Server and Windows IIS. Our online content server is also mirrored at a datacenter based in the heart of London. This facility offers 100Mbps connection to the Internet, hosting all online content, including Thomas Telford School’s Online Curriculum. Our content has reached over a million students nationally, and over 1,000 schools have subscribed to our online content. All servers are managed and maintained by the Computer Services staff.

Furthermore, the School operates an Extranet, which is a private network, accessible to Students and Staff from anywhere in the world via our own homepage. This virtual office environment allows both Staff and Students to transfer work to and from school and it also enables Staff and Students to send and receive email. Only staff and students with current user IDs and passwords are able to make use of this facility.

Firewall services are provided by a Watchguard Peak x8500e, which restricts unauthorised access to the School’s private network; additionally redundancy and failover of the schools 2 internet connections are also managed by this device, ensuring that the school does not experience any internet down time.

Sophos Anti-virus products are installed site wide to provide the school with protection against virus infection and the installation of malware and spyware. Additionally Sophos is also trusted to provide the school with internet content filtering via a WS1000 proxy appliance which in addition is complimented by an ES1000 appliance to protect the schools email system against external email viruses and spam.

Network maintenance and system monitoring is managed centrally. All PCs have remote management capability, which enables the system administrator to monitor, and if required, take control of any PC where a student may be having difficulties.

There are 520 computers and 67 electronic whiteboards (Smartboards) connected to the network, all of which have Internet access. Electronic whiteboards are situated throughout the School and can be found in all subject areas. These are well received by both staff and students.

As part of the Department's commitment to the community, we have also installed a further 20 Electronic Smartboards into local Primary and Secondary Schools, and over 800 workstations and 100 electronic whiteboards within 2 new city academies sponsored by the school.

Embedded audio and video features extensively within our Online Curriculum and to facilitate the creation and editing of this content, the School has a professional video-editing suite. This includes the latest AVID Adrenalin editing equipment. In addition, video content is distributed around the school to single or multiple venues simultaneously via a video over Category 5 cabling system provided by Scion Technologies

Content on this system is distributed centrally from within the computer services department, allowing for content to be policed accordingly on audience age certification. Remote control of the video is also provided to classroom locations with infrared being able to be transmitted over the Cat 5 video system, back to the desired player.

Within the Computer Services Department there is a continued desire to move the existing technology forward and maintain Thomas Telford's position as a leading City Technology College both academically and technically. To this end we intend to research new technologies that will complement the delivery of the curriculum. We believe that we are in a position to make available a range of exciting tools that will make the learning experience for our students both effective and enjoyable.

The Team Structure

All Information Technology support for both staff and students is managed via the Computer Services Department. Computer Services provide a ‘helpdesk’ facility, which is located centrally within the School. Students and staff can call at the helpdesk between 08:00 and 17:15 to receive help and support. The Department consists of highly motivated team, all working together towards a common goal - To maximise student performance.

Robert Cullen MCNE - IT Director

Computer Services
Dave Smith - IT Support Engineer
Al Patel -  IT Support Engineer
Chris Watson - IT Support Engineer

Media Services
Jason Latham - Head of Media Services - Web Developer / Programmer
Jayne Hill - Designer / Web Developer
Brian Fox - Flash Developer
Jonathan Hammond - Digital Video Editor
Martin Davies -  Digital Video Editor


The IT Director is responsible for the day-to-day running of the department. In addition all IT purchases and maintenance issues are made at this level. The IT Director is a qualified Novell MCNE and ultimately responsible for support, maintenance, and future planning of the entire network. The IT Support Staff provide a first point of contact for both staff and students. All service requests are logged, prioritised and allocated at the Help Desk. The IT Support Staff provide a rapid response to service requests. They are required to resolve all manner of IT related problems effectively and in an informative manner. The majority of reported problems are resolved within 15 minutes.

Meet the Computer Services Team

Meet the Media Services Team

View our Network Layout